# There’s A Hole In Your Story

An episode of [Elevation with Steven Furtick](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/216015753), 13 Mar 2026, 44 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/cbb40a38-726f-4243-a86e-b0ed01477640/d7bf295e-10f4-42ba-b516-b403013a2199/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=ff9164b2-aa64-410d-9ee1-b0ed0147765c

You get to choose the story you tell. In “There’s A Hole In Your Story,” Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church shows how the narratives we create can hold us back, and reminds us that freedom begins when we stop living by secondhand assumptions and start seeing our lives through the truth God is revealing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdik.
[0:02] Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
[0:05] Speaker 2: I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope
[0:08] Speaker 2: this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it
[0:11] Speaker 2: gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.
[0:13] Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
[0:18] Speaker 2: So thankful that you're here today, and I am going
[0:22] Speaker 2: to go ahead. I normally have you stand to read
[0:24] Speaker 2: the scripture. It's nineteen versus today, so go ahead and
[0:28] Speaker 2: sit down and we'll take it slow. God bless you.
[0:32] Speaker 2: My scripture from today's point of view is Acts chapter eleven.
[0:39] Speaker 2: This sermon will probably take two weeks to preach.
[0:44] Speaker 1: We did it last night. The Lord showed up.
[0:48] Speaker 2: I thought he did till nobody said that was here
[0:51] Speaker 2: last night. Yeah, to me, he showed up. And so
[0:58] Speaker 2: we probably won't get to the entire message today. But
[1:03] Speaker 2: in Acts chapter eleven, it's a very unique and pivotal
[1:08] Speaker 2: story as the Gospel is going forward through the ministry
[1:12] Speaker 2: of the Early Church, where it says in verse one,
[1:15] Speaker 2: the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the
[1:19] Speaker 2: Gentiles had also received the Word of God.
[1:22] Speaker 1: So when Peter went up to Jerusalem.
[1:25] Speaker 2: The circumcised believers criticized him and said, you went into
[1:30] Speaker 2: the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them. Starting
[1:37] Speaker 2: from the beginning verse four, Peter told them the whole story.
[1:40] Speaker 2: Here it is. I was in the city of Japa praying,
[1:43] Speaker 2: and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw
[1:46] Speaker 2: something like a large sheet being let down from heaven
[1:48] Speaker 2: by its four corners, and it came down to where
[1:52] Speaker 2: I was. I looked into it. Oh, I touch somebody
[1:55] Speaker 2: and say look into it. Yeah, I looked into it.
[2:00] Speaker 2: I saw four footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles,
[2:03] Speaker 2: and birds. Then I heard a voice telling me get up, Peter,
[2:07] Speaker 2: kill and eat. I replied, surely not, Lord. How are
[2:11] Speaker 2: you gonna say no and call him Lord in the
[2:14] Speaker 2: same sentence, that's crazy. Nothing impure or unclean has ever
[2:20] Speaker 2: entered my mouth.
[2:22] Speaker 1: And the voice spoke from heaven a second time.
[2:25] Speaker 2: Oh, thank God for second chances, third chances, fourth chances.
[2:32] Speaker 1: Can I get a fifth chance? Six chance, seven chances,
[2:34] Speaker 1: eight chance?
[2:37] Speaker 2: Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.
[2:40] Speaker 2: This happened three times, and then it was all pulled
[2:42] Speaker 2: up to heaven again. Right then three men who had
[2:45] Speaker 2: been sent to me from cesarea, stopped at the house
[2:47] Speaker 2: where I was staying, and the spirit told me to
[2:50] Speaker 2: have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers
[2:53] Speaker 2: also went with me, and we entered the man's house,
[2:56] Speaker 2: and he told us how he had seen an angel
[2:57] Speaker 2: appear in the house and say, send a drop of
[3:00] Speaker 2: for Simon, who is called Peter. He will bring you
[3:02] Speaker 2: a message through which you and all your households will
[3:05] Speaker 2: be saved. Now I began to speak, the Holy Spirit
[3:07] Speaker 2: came on them, and he had come on us to
[3:09] Speaker 2: begin in the same way. Then I remembered what the
[3:12] Speaker 2: Lord turned a Paige has said, John baptized with water,
[3:16] Speaker 2: but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So
[3:18] Speaker 2: if God gave them the same gift he gave us,
[3:22] Speaker 2: who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I
[3:25] Speaker 2: to think that I could stand in God's way if
[3:35] Speaker 2: you would nudge your neighbor gently and say get out
[3:37] Speaker 2: of God's way. When they heard this, they had no
[3:43] Speaker 2: further objections your honor and praised God, saying so then,
[3:48] Speaker 2: even to gentiles, God has granted repentance that leads to life.
[3:54] Speaker 2: So we've gone from in verse one gone from What
[4:01] Speaker 2: did I write down? I wrote it in my nose
[4:03] Speaker 2: because I was seeing it before I came out. Oh,
[4:05] Speaker 2: we went from protest to praise, from protests to praise.
[4:11] Speaker 2: But that's not the title of my message. The title
[4:14] Speaker 2: of my message hinges on verse four. Starting from the beginning,
[4:18] Speaker 2: Peter told them the whole story. Starting from the beginning,
[4:24] Speaker 2: Peter told them the whole story. Now look at your
[4:28] Speaker 2: neighbor and give them my title. Say I'm not calling
[4:30] Speaker 2: you a liar. I promise I'm not. But there's a
[4:36] Speaker 2: hole in your story. Come on, say it like you're
[4:41] Speaker 2: on CSI and they've been in the interrogation room all
[4:44] Speaker 2: night and the coffee is cold. Look at them again
[4:47] Speaker 2: and say there's a hole in your story. Look at
[4:51] Speaker 2: your other neighbors, Say there's a hole in your story.
[4:57] Speaker 2: A story within a story. After eleven, it's really about
[5:02] Speaker 2: the purpose of God. But it's told through the perspective
[5:05] Speaker 2: of Peter, through the writing of Luke. For Theophilus to
[5:10] Speaker 2: describe simultaneously both the ministry of Peter and the purpose
[5:14] Speaker 2: of God. Did you know that your story is a
[5:18] Speaker 2: story within a story. There's always a story within the story.
[5:24] Speaker 2: There's the surface story, and then there is the story
[5:27] Speaker 2: that is beneath the surface, and then.
[5:29] Speaker 1: There is the story that is overarching.
[5:32] Speaker 2: And sometimes we don't even realize how how many missing
[5:37] Speaker 2: pieces there are of the stories that we tell ourselves.
[5:43] Speaker 2: Even worse, we don't even really understand the missing I
[5:49] Speaker 2: would call.
[5:49] Speaker 1: It a plot hole.
[5:50] Speaker 2: You've been watching the show and they just there's just
[5:52] Speaker 2: a plot hole in the in the in the story.
[5:55] Speaker 2: We were watching this Christian movie called Friday Night Lights
[5:57] Speaker 2: with Saint Tim Riggins, and they had a plot hole
[6:03] Speaker 2: in it. We were talking about this and Lilah Garrity
[6:06] Speaker 2: drove her car into Buddy Garritty's car dealership through the window.
[6:09] Speaker 2: In the next episode, everything was fine and she had
[6:12] Speaker 2: her car back. And even in our family we adopted
[6:15] Speaker 2: that we call it. Can I get a garrity? When
[6:18] Speaker 2: you do something stupid in our family and you want
[6:20] Speaker 2: total immunity and forgiveness and never bring it up again.
[6:23] Speaker 2: As far as the east is from the west, can
[6:24] Speaker 2: you cast us in the sea?
[6:26] Speaker 1: You have to ask for a garrity?
[6:27] Speaker 2: How many of you have ever needed God to give
[6:29] Speaker 2: you a garrity? Yeah? I can preach on anything, and
[6:37] Speaker 2: the truth of the matter is in Acts, chapter eleven.
[6:40] Speaker 2: You know, it's a microcosm for what we experienced so
[6:43] Speaker 2: many times in our lives, where when there is space,
[6:47] Speaker 2: a story fills it. And then the space between what
[6:52] Speaker 2: you know and what you think you know sometimes is
[6:55] Speaker 2: the story that you tell yourself that keeps you stuck
[7:00] Speaker 2: sleepy for me to preach or can I do this
[7:01] Speaker 2: like I want to? When the church was first starting
[7:06] Speaker 2: and I was an inexperienced pastor, just a whipper snapper
[7:10] Speaker 2: in a Monarchy T shirt with some.
[7:12] Speaker 1: Antique denim jeans and some Martin Mason.
[7:14] Speaker 2: Boots, I was oblivious about certain things, and I invited
[7:21] Speaker 2: this man to come share his story with our church.
[7:24] Speaker 2: The church was only about two years old, and I
[7:26] Speaker 2: had him share with the whole church his story. The
[7:30] Speaker 2: next week, somebody called our church office and requested to
[7:35] Speaker 2: have a phone appointment with me.
[7:37] Speaker 1: And the person who called was a man of God.
[7:40] Speaker 2: He had a radio ministry and I had heard his
[7:42] Speaker 2: voice on the radio so many times, so when we
[7:44] Speaker 2: finally talked on the phone, it was surreal to hear
[7:46] Speaker 2: his voice because I'd heard him on the radio and
[7:49] Speaker 2: never talked to him before. Didn't even know that he
[7:51] Speaker 2: knew who I was, so I felt kind of important
[7:55] Speaker 2: when they said so and so wants to talk to
[7:57] Speaker 2: you and set up a phone appointment. Oh, phone appointment,
[8:04] Speaker 2: and so when the day came to have the call,
[8:08] Speaker 2: he said, hello, pastor. It's a beautiful, rich baritone voice.
[8:12] Speaker 2: Very soon, Hello pastor.
[8:15] Speaker 1: I said, hey, it's so good to talk to you,
[8:19] Speaker 1: and he said, you might want to hear what I
[8:21] Speaker 1: have to say before you say that.
[8:24] Speaker 2: Now. Now, what he said next was an education. He
[8:28] Speaker 2: gave me a seminary education and a five minute phone call.
[8:31] Speaker 2: He said, I watched your interview with so and so,
[8:34] Speaker 2: the person I had brought up.
[8:36] Speaker 1: Let me do it in his voice. I watched your
[8:38] Speaker 1: interview and it was very entertaining, but it wasn't very accurate.
[8:46] Speaker 1: I said, well, all I did was let him share
[8:48] Speaker 1: his story. And he said, well, there's a few holes
[8:54] Speaker 1: in that story. Then I'd like to fill in.
[8:57] Speaker 2: See the man I was talking to, he was playing
[8:59] Speaker 2: the victim role, and when he told his story, it
[9:03] Speaker 2: was everybody who didn't help him, everybody who didn't care
[9:06] Speaker 2: about him, everybody.
[9:07] Speaker 1: Who mistreated him.
[9:08] Speaker 2: He didn't mention the people who gave him rent payments.
[9:13] Speaker 2: He didn't mention the people who gave him second chances,
[9:16] Speaker 2: third chances, fourth chances. He left a lot of that out.
[9:20] Speaker 2: But I never forgot what the older, more experienced pastor
[9:23] Speaker 2: said because I've been trying to apply it to my life.
[9:26] Speaker 1: There's a few holes in your story.
[9:30] Speaker 2: Now.
[9:30] Speaker 1: I don't mean to.
[9:31] Speaker 2: Get all up in your macaroni at this time of
[9:33] Speaker 2: the day, because I know it's early, but are there
[9:36] Speaker 2: a few holes in the story that you've been telling
[9:39] Speaker 2: yourself about yourself, about others, about your parents, about your kids,
[9:49] Speaker 2: about God?
[9:51] Speaker 1: Are there some holes in your story? I want to
[9:55] Speaker 1: take this text for a moment and interrogate it.
[9:59] Speaker 2: I want to see what Peter said in verse four
[10:03] Speaker 2: that took us from what did I say again? From
[10:06] Speaker 2: protests to praise. It started with this whole group. It
[10:11] Speaker 2: started with a rumor. Now, back in the Bible days
[10:13] Speaker 2: they spread rumors. Things have changed, we have evolved societally.
[10:20] Speaker 2: In the Bible, they spread rumors, and they weren't always accurate.
[10:24] Speaker 2: So in verse one, if you revisit it with me
[10:27] Speaker 2: for a moment, they're talking about Peter going to eat
[10:31] Speaker 2: with the gentiles. Did you hear what Peter did already
[10:35] Speaker 2: he was down there bacon and sausage and poor crimes
[10:40] Speaker 2: with those Gentiles. I already was down there playing poker.
[10:44] Speaker 2: I already he was drinking beer and watching cinemax and HV.
[10:49] Speaker 1: You know how.
[10:49] Speaker 2: Stuff. And so by the time one author said, a
[10:57] Speaker 2: lie can make it around the world, by the time
[10:59] Speaker 2: the truth gets shoeslay stuff. And here's what's crazy. The
[11:05] Speaker 2: story about what Peter did got back to Jerusalem before
[11:09] Speaker 2: Peter did. The story beat Peter back to Jerusalem, and
[11:15] Speaker 2: he's seventy miles away sharing the gospel, the gospel of
[11:20] Speaker 2: Jesus Christ has just gone beyond the borders of one
[11:24] Speaker 2: people group, the Jews, to the Gentiles, which was God's
[11:28] Speaker 2: original intention. When he called Abraham, he said, I'm gonna
[11:32] Speaker 2: bless you, but I'm not just gonna bless you to
[11:35] Speaker 2: bless you. I'm gonna bless you to be a blessing,
[11:37] Speaker 2: and through you all the nations of the earth will
[11:40] Speaker 2: be blessed. That's always what he wanted to do, and
[11:44] Speaker 2: now he's doing it. But sometimes we get so lost
[11:48] Speaker 2: in the story, the story that was handed to us,
[11:52] Speaker 2: that we missed the bigger story that God is telling
[11:56] Speaker 2: and the keyword to me in verse one was it
[11:58] Speaker 2: said the apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard the
[12:04] Speaker 2: word was heard, they heard something. Do you hear about?
[12:08] Speaker 1: What? Do you hear what they did? Do you hear
[12:12] Speaker 1: what they did?
[12:14] Speaker 2: Did you read the article? No, I've just read the headline.
[12:20] Speaker 2: You go to evolution. What's it called elevation? Elevation of church?
[12:25] Speaker 2: I heard they don't have a cross on the building,
[12:28] Speaker 2: or I heard they don't have I heard that they
[12:29] Speaker 2: have a trampoline on the stage for leap year. I heard,
[12:32] Speaker 2: I heard, I heard, I heard, I heard. You know
[12:36] Speaker 2: how much trouble there is when when you take the
[12:40] Speaker 2: heart what you heard without checking it out. So the
[12:44] Speaker 2: first thing I want to say, I want to do
[12:46] Speaker 2: a sermon around this. I want to warn you about
[12:48] Speaker 2: four types of stories that will ruin your life if
[12:52] Speaker 2: you let them.
[12:54] Speaker 1: Four types of stories with some hold in.
[12:56] Speaker 2: And the first one I want to show you is
[12:58] Speaker 2: beware of secondhand stories. Beware of what you believe that
[13:08] Speaker 2: you have not seen. For yourself and for everybody over
[13:12] Speaker 2: the age of twelve, raise your hand. If you're over
[13:16] Speaker 2: the age of twelve, raise your hand and wave it
[13:18] Speaker 2: at me. Real good, like, just let me know that
[13:20] Speaker 2: you got all your circulation left. Yeah, wave it at me.
[13:24] Speaker 2: If we are grown ups, can we please make a
[13:27] Speaker 2: quality decision to stop letting our opinions of others be
[13:32] Speaker 2: determined through the filter of the opinions of others. The
[13:42] Speaker 2: contrast is severe. In verse one, it says the apostles
[13:46] Speaker 2: and believers they heard about what Peter was doing, and
[13:51] Speaker 2: they criticized him out of their ignorance. But verse five
[13:55] Speaker 2: says that they heard what Peter did, but watch what
[13:58] Speaker 2: Peter has. Peter has a first person perspective, so he's
[14:02] Speaker 2: not going off of what he heard. He's going off
[14:04] Speaker 2: of what he experienced. That's why it doesn't affect me
[14:08] Speaker 2: what you think God is like. You can tell me
[14:11] Speaker 2: God is judgmental and hateful, but I don't believe that
[14:14] Speaker 2: because I have experienced his law, I have seen his goodness,
[14:19] Speaker 2: I have felt his touch, I have experienced his embrace.
[14:23] Speaker 2: And so when you hear something secondhand and take it
[14:27] Speaker 2: as truth, it can be worse than secondhand smoke. Secondhand
[14:31] Speaker 2: smoke can destroy your lungs. Secondhand stories can destroy your life.
[14:37] Speaker 2: Secondhand stories can keep you from getting to know people
[14:40] Speaker 2: that you would actually like if you didn't just meet
[14:43] Speaker 2: them through a screen. Secondhand stories can keep you from
[14:47] Speaker 2: stereotyping genders and races and other denominations. I was riding
[14:53] Speaker 2: around with a pastor one time and we drove by
[14:55] Speaker 2: a church and.
[14:56] Speaker 1: The parking lot was full.
[14:57] Speaker 2: The parking lot was so full that people were parked
[15:00] Speaker 2: on the side of the road to go to that church.
[15:02] Speaker 2: And we were driving past it to go to his church.
[15:04] Speaker 2: And I was speaking for him, and we were going
[15:07] Speaker 2: on the way to his church, and he pointed at
[15:09] Speaker 2: the church with the full parking lot and said, that's
[15:12] Speaker 2: a weird church. I sat under my breath and it's
[15:16] Speaker 2: full too. And see, when something else makes you feel insecure,
[15:26] Speaker 2: you shield yourself by calling it weird. So this is
[15:32] Speaker 2: what I want you to get.
[15:33] Speaker 1: Out of it.
[15:34] Speaker 2: Some of you are holding on to stories that are
[15:37] Speaker 2: not even true about you, that were given to you
[15:40] Speaker 2: second hand about who you are. Gideon, you know I
[15:45] Speaker 2: am the least in my tribe. This is an Old
[15:47] Speaker 2: Testament story that illustrates it. I am the smallest. My
[15:50] Speaker 2: tribe is the smallest. I'm the smallest in the tribe.
[15:53] Speaker 2: And I want to ask you what God asked Adam
[15:56] Speaker 2: and Eve in the Garden of Eden?
[15:58] Speaker 1: Who told you that? Who told you that story?
[16:05] Speaker 2: Sometimes it's even well meaning people. I mean, these were
[16:08] Speaker 2: not pagans. These were observant Jewish Christians who just wanted
[16:13] Speaker 2: to get it right.
[16:15] Speaker 1: But what happened in their day happens in ours.
[16:19] Speaker 2: Where you know, when God originally blessed his people, he
[16:23] Speaker 2: wanted them to take it beyond just these borders. But
[16:27] Speaker 2: over time, you know, tradition gets in the way of truth,
[16:33] Speaker 2: so then you start thinking that your tradition is the truth.
[16:39] Speaker 2: And if you've ever had a family member say something
[16:42] Speaker 2: to you like, oh, well, you're getting kind of big
[16:44] Speaker 2: for your briches.
[16:46] Speaker 1: Is that just a monk's corner thing? You know, you
[16:51] Speaker 1: make a.
[16:51] Speaker 2: Move forward, Oh well, you're getting too big for your briches.
[16:54] Speaker 2: It's a way of trying to keep you stuck in
[16:56] Speaker 2: the tradition of what our family has accomplished and what
[16:59] Speaker 2: we do. And so it's so subconscious for most of us.
[17:02] Speaker 2: It's a story that runs in the background and we
[17:04] Speaker 2: never even know it. But it is a story that
[17:07] Speaker 2: someone else told themselves, and then they passed it on
[17:10] Speaker 2: to us, and we took it as our own, and
[17:11] Speaker 2: we stay stuck in a story for eighty years of
[17:13] Speaker 2: our life that we could have broken out of if
[17:15] Speaker 2: we would have believed the voice of God. I hear
[17:25] Speaker 2: my preaching mentor saying slow down, verdict, So let me
[17:28] Speaker 2: do that for a moment. What stories are you holding
[17:31] Speaker 2: onto that are old, that are keeping you from what's
[17:38] Speaker 2: new and what's now and what's true and what's real.
[17:47] Speaker 2: Secondhand stories, it's a dangerous thing. If you ever played
[17:52] Speaker 2: the game where you pass a thing down the road,
[17:55] Speaker 2: I could start and say milk is on sale, and
[17:58] Speaker 2: by the time it gets to by the time it
[18:01] Speaker 2: passes all the way down this road, you know it
[18:03] Speaker 2: would turn into you know, Donald Trump is the pastor
[18:07] Speaker 2: of Elevation Church by the time it got down that row.
[18:10] Speaker 2: And it's never been worse than it is right now
[18:12] Speaker 2: in our world that we don't.
[18:14] Speaker 1: Read the whole story, just the headlines.
[18:17] Speaker 2: So then it becomes, oh, well, you're not this, and
[18:20] Speaker 2: you're only that, and you can't this, and all white
[18:23] Speaker 2: people and all black people and all men and all
[18:26] Speaker 2: women and this community and that community. And it is
[18:29] Speaker 2: a generic way of keeping us from peeling back the labels,
[18:33] Speaker 2: because labels always limit and when you label yourself, you
[18:36] Speaker 2: limit yourself. So all that to say, there might be
[18:43] Speaker 2: a few holes in your story, some things that you
[18:47] Speaker 2: have told yourself that aren't necessarily he said.
[18:50] Speaker 1: It was very entertaining, but it wasn't very accurate.
[18:55] Speaker 2: And sometimes you tell yourself a story to survive, just
[19:00] Speaker 2: to make it. And what's sad to me about it
[19:04] Speaker 2: is somebody might have rejected you at one point in
[19:08] Speaker 2: your life because of how they felt about themselves, and
[19:13] Speaker 2: then you took it as an indication of your value.
[19:16] Speaker 2: Oh well, they walked out of my life. There must
[19:18] Speaker 2: have been something wrong with me. That's their story, not yours.
[19:23] Speaker 2: That's their story, not yours. That's their story, not yours.
[19:28] Speaker 2: And you don't have to own it. And I love
[19:31] Speaker 2: Peter because he is so reckless. And so the reckless
[19:35] Speaker 2: Reverend comes in, but he's got himself under control, and
[19:39] Speaker 2: he just told them the whole story. Don't you want
[19:42] Speaker 2: God to show you the whole story of your life?
[19:46] Speaker 2: And when he starts the story, he starts with everybody's
[19:50] Speaker 2: favorite main character in the story.
[19:53] Speaker 1: Look at verse five. You're ready for this.
[19:54] Speaker 2: This is how every story starts. Watches I number two,
[20:03] Speaker 2: Beware of self centered stories. Oh man, when you put
[20:09] Speaker 2: yourself at the center of every story, you're gonna be
[20:13] Speaker 2: stressed out. There's not enough peptobysmal in the world for
[20:18] Speaker 2: you to keep your stomach calm if you put yourself
[20:21] Speaker 2: at the center of every story. And this is for
[20:23] Speaker 2: all of us who are easily offended.
[20:25] Speaker 1: All right, did you see how they looked at me.
[20:27] Speaker 2: They don't like me, They like you, fine, they're sleepy,
[20:34] Speaker 2: they don't like their husband. It's not you. Oh, look
[20:39] Speaker 2: at somebody and set them for you say, it's not you.
[20:42] Speaker 2: It's not you. They weren't mad at Peter. They were
[20:46] Speaker 2: stuck in a structure and a system and a way
[20:49] Speaker 2: of thought. When I make myself the center of the story,
[20:52] Speaker 2: I take on unnecessary stress. Sometimes when I'm preaching, I
[20:57] Speaker 2: think I'm not doing good if everybody's not.
[20:59] Speaker 1: You know, saying amen or something like that. But what
[21:02] Speaker 1: if you were up.
[21:03] Speaker 2: Till three thirty in the morning and you didn't get
[21:05] Speaker 2: your sleep. I'm gonna take that as a reflection of
[21:07] Speaker 2: my preaching.
[21:07] Speaker 1: I don't think so.
[21:07] Speaker 2: The devil is a liar. This is good preaching, no
[21:09] Speaker 2: matter whether you're not at it or not. And you know,
[21:11] Speaker 2: what I need to get better about that in my
[21:14] Speaker 2: life because I really struggle thinking that every story starts
[21:18] Speaker 2: with me.
[21:21] Speaker 1: How they treated me.
[21:23] Speaker 2: And so I say, like, you know that God has
[21:25] Speaker 2: a reason for everything. And what I mean by that is, okay,
[21:29] Speaker 2: this is my dirty little secret. What I mean is
[21:32] Speaker 2: God has a reason for this that I am going
[21:34] Speaker 2: to like agree with and understand. And that's just not
[21:38] Speaker 2: the way it is. How many know, that's just not
[21:41] Speaker 2: the way it is. A self centered story in parenting
[21:46] Speaker 2: when I make it about myself. Remember these are circumcised believers.
[21:51] Speaker 2: That is an external sign of a covenant. It's something
[21:55] Speaker 2: that you can see. You wouldn't necessarily always see it,
[21:59] Speaker 2: but you could see it. I'm gonna leave that right
[22:02] Speaker 2: there in case your kid didn't go to the kid's
[22:04] Speaker 2: ministry today and you can do that Bible study home.
[22:08] Speaker 2: But you couldn't necessarily see it, but you could see it.
[22:11] Speaker 2: And here's the temptation when we try to go off
[22:14] Speaker 2: of what we can see and tell ourselves a story,
[22:17] Speaker 2: and then we start filling in the space. Remember Peter
[22:20] Speaker 2: is seventy miles away from Jerusalem, and they start telling
[22:24] Speaker 2: the story. Space creates stories. Physical space creates stories. Sometimes
[22:32] Speaker 2: you don't need to text certain things. You need to
[22:35] Speaker 2: pick up the phone and call. Sometimes text doesn't get
[22:39] Speaker 2: the tone across, and you're gonna spend six months fixing
[22:43] Speaker 2: a relational mess because you use your thumbs rather than
[22:47] Speaker 2: your feet to walk over and have a real conversation.
[22:55] Speaker 2: And so when you have space, you create a story.
[23:00] Speaker 2: Even the space of time creates stories. You know, a
[23:02] Speaker 2: lot of time goes by and you're like, you start,
[23:04] Speaker 2: you start remembering things differently, don't you. Yeah, it's hard
[23:13] Speaker 2: for me right now raising kids to remember what it's
[23:16] Speaker 2: like to be a kid. So if one of my
[23:20] Speaker 2: kids acts up, my immediate thing is to make it
[23:23] Speaker 2: about me.
[23:24] Speaker 1: They are disrespecting me. I am the man of God.
[23:31] Speaker 2: And uh, one day, the Lord, the Lord really this
[23:36] Speaker 2: was this was like have you ever had one of
[23:38] Speaker 2: those god bombs just go off inside of you where
[23:40] Speaker 2: you just knew that what you were thinking was wrong.
[23:43] Speaker 2: I was. I was thinking about one of my kids.
[23:45] Speaker 2: They are so selfish. They were making certain certain decisions.
[23:49] Speaker 2: I thought, this is so selfish. The Lord said, They're
[23:53] Speaker 2: not selfish, they're scared. Think about what it's like when
[23:59] Speaker 2: you start getting flow with all of those hormones. Think
[24:02] Speaker 2: about what it's like when the rules change on you
[24:04] Speaker 2: all of a sudden. And y'all don't have big kids yet,
[24:07] Speaker 2: but you will remember. You will remember certain times in
[24:10] Speaker 2: your life where you were acting selfish. The reason you
[24:13] Speaker 2: were acting selfish is because.
[24:15] Speaker 1: You were scared.
[24:17] Speaker 2: And when you get scared, you start acting selfish because
[24:21] Speaker 2: you are in protection mode. So what am I doing?
[24:24] Speaker 2: I'm going from God. They're so selfish, and God is
[24:27] Speaker 2: showing me that the whole story. See, there's a whole
[24:31] Speaker 2: in your story. There's a whole story. And then there's
[24:35] Speaker 2: a whole in your story. And sometimes we tell ourselves
[24:39] Speaker 2: stories about others without realizing that they are going through
[24:44] Speaker 2: things too. Y'all don't want to say amen to this,
[24:48] Speaker 2: because it means we have to have compassion on people,
[24:52] Speaker 2: kind of like God has compassion on us. Like we
[24:56] Speaker 2: want God to forgive us, like we want God to
[25:00] Speaker 2: excuse our gaps. We're gonna have to sometimes say, God,
[25:04] Speaker 2: help me to stop making it about me. God forgive
[25:09] Speaker 2: me for making this about me. I feel the Holy
[25:13] Speaker 2: ghost and fire in my bones right now. It's bigger
[25:17] Speaker 2: than you. It's bigger than you. How could Peter have
[25:21] Speaker 2: known that what he was being criticized for in this
[25:24] Speaker 2: moment would lead to the Gospel penetrating the Roman Empire.
[25:29] Speaker 2: You have no idea what God is doing through this conflict,
[25:33] Speaker 2: this season in your life. There is a bigger story
[25:37] Speaker 2: being told, and there is a hole in your story.
[25:47] Speaker 3: There's a hole in your story. Dear Holly, Dear Holly,
[25:58] Speaker 3: there's a hole.
[25:59] Speaker 2: In did you know there's a whole not in your bucket.
[26:02] Speaker 1: There's a hole in your story. There's a hole in
[26:06] Speaker 1: your story.
[26:08] Speaker 2: And we can't stand not to know how things are
[26:10] Speaker 2: going to turn out. So what we do We make
[26:13] Speaker 2: up a story. I mean, we make up look sit out.
[26:18] Speaker 2: I gotta tell you about selective stories. Selective stories. This
[26:25] Speaker 2: is when you don't know what's going to happen next
[26:28] Speaker 2: in your life. Like think about the uncertainty that the
[26:31] Speaker 2: early Church was facing under great persecution and yet great
[26:35] Speaker 2: purpose at the same time of great persecution, and they're
[26:38] Speaker 2: both happening simultaneously. But what story are you going to choose?
[26:44] Speaker 2: Selective stories? You are always choosing your story, and some
[26:49] Speaker 2: of us, for some God forsaken reason, keep choosing horror stories.
[26:57] Speaker 2: We fill in the unknown parts of our future. Sure
[27:01] Speaker 2: you know what, some of us could give Stephen King
[27:04] Speaker 2: a run for his money if we put down the
[27:09] Speaker 2: paper the scary stories we write about what might happen
[27:12] Speaker 2: in our lives. I mean, if Stephen King has nothing
[27:18] Speaker 2: on you, you create boogeymen. You create scenarios out of the
[27:24] Speaker 2: small Have you noticed how the smallest thing can put
[27:27] Speaker 2: a story? Have you you know if your new parent
[27:29] Speaker 2: raise your hand, they're not sleeping through the night. How
[27:31] Speaker 2: many you got a baby that's not sleeping through the
[27:33] Speaker 2: night right now? And how many times have you thought,
[27:35] Speaker 2: what if this is a sign of.
[27:36] Speaker 1: Things to come?
[27:37] Speaker 2: And now you got them in rehab, and now you
[27:39] Speaker 2: got them on drunk, strung out on, there's got a
[27:40] Speaker 2: needle in their arm, and they're just collicky flat tire.
[27:48] Speaker 1: Oh god, it's just gonna be one of those days.
[27:52] Speaker 1: That's a story. It's just gonna be one of those days.
[27:56] Speaker 2: Flat tire. Now, the same person might have got a
[27:58] Speaker 2: flat tire and said, well, God must have been keep
[28:00] Speaker 2: me from a wreck that was gonna happen two miles
[28:02] Speaker 2: up the street. That's just a story.
[28:08] Speaker 1: You ready for this.
[28:10] Speaker 2: You don't get to choose every situation, but You get
[28:14] Speaker 2: to choose the story. Oh, the power of God is
[28:19] Speaker 2: in that truth. You choose the story that you tell yourself,
[28:26] Speaker 2: So if something's hard, you can be like, oh, man,
[28:28] Speaker 2: this is hard.
[28:28] Speaker 1: I thought God told me to do it. But I
[28:31] Speaker 1: guess the Lord isn't in this.
[28:33] Speaker 2: This is hard. It must not be God. What if
[28:36] Speaker 2: Jesus would have thought about the cross that way? Oh
[28:41] Speaker 2: this is hard. This must not be the will of God.
[28:43] Speaker 2: I must not have heard God on this one. But
[28:45] Speaker 2: this is hard. This is That's a story. Here's another story.
[28:49] Speaker 2: This is so hard. It must be God.
[28:55] Speaker 4: That must be the devil must have got a memo
[28:59] Speaker 4: that I'm on to something good.
[29:01] Speaker 2: I'm on the educator. That's what these giants are here
[29:05] Speaker 2: to signify. It is dangerous when when you select a
[29:14] Speaker 2: certain story, nobody cares about me.
[29:16] Speaker 1: Give me your phone.
[29:19] Speaker 2: I will show you people who care about you, who
[29:21] Speaker 2: checked on you this week. But you let that devil
[29:25] Speaker 2: in your editing room and gave him your typewriter.
[29:28] Speaker 1: I'm an old school preacher.
[29:29] Speaker 2: You gave him the seat in the chair to edit
[29:32] Speaker 2: your story. You get to choose your story.
[29:40] Speaker 1: I didn't always believe this.
[29:42] Speaker 2: I thought, well, you know, well, certain people, they have
[29:45] Speaker 2: certain stories. No, No, those are situations. Life will give
[29:49] Speaker 2: you a lot of suffering. You don't get to choose it.
[29:54] Speaker 2: But if you're gonna have to suffer enough because of
[29:56] Speaker 2: the situations that life brings, why would you choose to
[30:00] Speaker 2: suffer with a story. I don't know who this is for.
[30:05] Speaker 2: It is probably not somebody in this room. You've suffered enough.
[30:09] Speaker 2: You've suffered enough. What you're going through is hard enough.
[30:12] Speaker 2: What you're dealing with this heavy enough without telling yourself
[30:15] Speaker 2: a story about it that reinforces the thought that God
[30:18] Speaker 2: is not with you. I'm still in Acts eleven. Peter
[30:25] Speaker 2: told them the whole story. He saw what God did.
[30:28] Speaker 2: They heard it. He saw it. They heard it. He
[30:34] Speaker 2: saw it, they heard it. He showed up and said,
[30:37] Speaker 2: I heard what you've been saying about me. But there's
[30:40] Speaker 2: a hole in your story. You're telling me what you heard.
[30:46] Speaker 2: Let me tell you what I saw.
[30:49] Speaker 1: I saw the vision of the whole earth.
[30:52] Speaker 2: Being reached by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I saw it,
[30:56] Speaker 2: I experienced it. I know that God is for me.
[31:00] Speaker 2: How do you know, well? I was there. I was
[31:03] Speaker 2: there when He picked me up. I was there when
[31:05] Speaker 2: nobody else could give me the comfort in the bamb
[31:08] Speaker 2: in the medicine. But God helped me through that night.
[31:11] Speaker 2: I was there, when I was in the middle of
[31:12] Speaker 2: an emotional storm that I saw no way through. But
[31:15] Speaker 2: look at me on the other side, dancing on the shore.
[31:19] Speaker 2: I was there. You can't tell me God's not real.
[31:23] Speaker 2: You can't tell me he didn't choose me. You can't
[31:25] Speaker 2: tell me grace doesn't work. You can't tell me it's over.
[31:29] Speaker 2: You can't tell me the best is behind me. You
[31:32] Speaker 2: can't make me tell him. I know too much.
[31:36] Speaker 4: I saw it.
[31:37] Speaker 2: You tell me what you heard. I'll tell you what
[31:39] Speaker 2: I saw. I feel the spherit of the Lord. You
[31:49] Speaker 2: choose the story. Now. If this is the most difficult
[31:55] Speaker 2: season of your life, right now, you.
[31:57] Speaker 1: Still get to choose the story. Did you clap because
[32:03] Speaker 1: you're going through hell?
[32:05] Speaker 2: You get to choose what you tell yourself the story
[32:09] Speaker 2: of this season. Okay, because watch this. One person says,
[32:14] Speaker 2: I'm going through the valley of the shadow of death.
[32:18] Speaker 2: Somebody else says, there's a table for me in the
[32:21] Speaker 2: presence of my enemies. It's the same situation, but it's
[32:26] Speaker 2: a different story. Y'all forgot how to shout while I
[32:30] Speaker 2: was gone last week, shout if you know that the.
[32:34] Speaker 4: Devil might take your money, he might.
[32:36] Speaker 2: Rob you up a few years.
[32:38] Speaker 4: But you can't have my story, my joy, my annoyed sing,
[32:43] Speaker 4: my authority, get under my feet, snake.
[32:55] Speaker 2: Now one of my best friends is going through the
[32:58] Speaker 2: most horrible season of their life right now, and he
[33:01] Speaker 2: and his wife lost everything last year, lost everything. I
[33:06] Speaker 2: don't mean that like we say it. You know, your
[33:09] Speaker 2: video game progress got lost. I'm not talking about that.
[33:12] Speaker 2: I'm talking about stripped. I'm talking about it. I felt
[33:16] Speaker 2: like I was watching the Book of Job. I thought
[33:19] Speaker 2: they would lose their faith. I really did. And what
[33:24] Speaker 2: would make me mad. Every time I would call to
[33:26] Speaker 2: encourage them, they would start encouraging me.
[33:30] Speaker 1: And I was like, stop it.
[33:33] Speaker 2: This is your encouraging phone call. You ever been trying
[33:37] Speaker 2: to unlock the door and somebody else is unlocking it
[33:39] Speaker 2: at the same time. Stop it, stop it, stop it,
[33:41] Speaker 2: stop it, stop it.
[33:44] Speaker 1: And so she said something the wife.
[33:48] Speaker 2: They lost their their ministry had to move to the
[33:51] Speaker 2: other side of the country, and much of it was
[33:55] Speaker 2: his decision, it wasn't her decision. And then at the
[33:58] Speaker 2: consequence of his decision and she ends up having to
[34:01] Speaker 2: leave everything that she's known, the town they grew up in,
[34:03] Speaker 2: the ministry, all of it left, it gone, gone other
[34:06] Speaker 2: side of the country.
[34:07] Speaker 1: Then she gets diagnosed with cancer. So I'm like, if
[34:15] Speaker 1: for real right now?
[34:17] Speaker 2: Her all right? So I saw her after all her
[34:21] Speaker 2: hair was gone from chemo, and after she was, you know,
[34:25] Speaker 2: thirty three percent smaller than she was when I saw
[34:28] Speaker 2: all the all of the stuff was in full effect.
[34:33] Speaker 1: She started talking about thank God for the insurance.
[34:37] Speaker 2: No, I don't want you to clap yet, because think
[34:41] Speaker 2: about this, she said, even though we lost everything, if
[34:45] Speaker 2: we hadn't moved across the country, we wouldn't have gotten
[34:47] Speaker 2: put on different insurance, and our old insurance wouldn't have
[34:50] Speaker 2: covered this.
[34:52] Speaker 1: Hold on, don't clap yet.
[34:53] Speaker 2: So I'm thinking I've got an attitude about it, like, well,
[34:56] Speaker 2: if God can get you to the other side of
[34:58] Speaker 2: the country for better insurance, he should stopped the camp, sir.
[35:01] Speaker 1: That's how I think I know.
[35:03] Speaker 2: Y'ealler halo's just glowing right now. Y'all trust the Lord
[35:07] Speaker 2: with all your heart, leaning on your own understanding.
[35:09] Speaker 1: Sometimes I lean on my own understanding, and I'm.
[35:11] Speaker 2: Like, this is ridiculous, I said, And I didn't say
[35:15] Speaker 2: it out loud, but I'm sitting over there thinking that,
[35:18] Speaker 2: thinking like, well, did God really have to make you
[35:21] Speaker 2: lose everything? Gets you across the country, give you insurance.
[35:23] Speaker 2: If he's a healer, I'm thinking that. I called him yesterday.
[35:30] Speaker 2: I was like, I keep thinking about this insurance thing
[35:33] Speaker 2: y'all keep saying is bugging me. It doesn't make any logical,
[35:38] Speaker 2: tactical sense. The great I am, who can park the
[35:41] Speaker 2: Red Sea, can't stop you from getting cancer. He just
[35:43] Speaker 2: get you on a better insurance policy. I said, I
[35:47] Speaker 2: don't get it. She said, that's not your story. Y'all
[35:52] Speaker 2: better help me shout and we're never gonna get to
[35:55] Speaker 2: the eleven thirty. I want you to look at that
[35:58] Speaker 2: devil and say your story, she said, if I believed,
[36:04] Speaker 2: if I believed that this was the end for me,
[36:08] Speaker 2: I wouldn't survive. But if I believe that I will
[36:13] Speaker 2: see the goodness of the Lord in the land of
[36:18] Speaker 2: the living.
[36:19] Speaker 4: She said, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
[36:23] Speaker 4: Let the devil know, come hammer, hot water.
[36:33] Speaker 2: I get to choose the story that I tell. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[36:43] Speaker 2: I feel empowerment in this word. I get to choose
[36:48] Speaker 2: the story that I tell. I get to choose. Be
[36:53] Speaker 2: careful about selective stories. Be careful about self centered stories,
[36:59] Speaker 2: be care full about secondhand stories, and be careful about
[37:04] Speaker 2: short stories. Just sitting down like you want me to
[37:10] Speaker 2: finish now, be careful of short stories. This point is
[37:17] Speaker 2: not for Holly. She has never in her life. I
[37:27] Speaker 2: might have to pay for this when we get home,
[37:29] Speaker 2: but it's gonna be worth it to get the point across.
[37:34] Speaker 2: My wife. When she was growing up, her dad used
[37:38] Speaker 2: to say when because there were three women in the house, well,
[37:40] Speaker 2: three daughters and a wife, so he was just it
[37:43] Speaker 2: was him versus the estrogen, and the estrogen was just
[37:46] Speaker 2: so powerful, and so when they would start telling a story,
[37:51] Speaker 2: he go, he go, how long.
[37:53] Speaker 1: Is this story going to be? I just need to
[37:57] Speaker 1: know should I should I? Should I get comfortable in
[38:01] Speaker 1: my chair?
[38:02] Speaker 2: Should I? Should I fluff my pillow?
[38:04] Speaker 1: Should I get an MRI? How long are we going.
[38:07] Speaker 2: To be here in the story. I thought that was
[38:11] Speaker 2: so rude that he would say that, But I'm kind
[38:15] Speaker 2: of like, now I know what he was saying, because
[38:17] Speaker 2: it's not I don't want to hear it. I just
[38:22] Speaker 2: want to pace myself with my attentions. Then make sure
[38:25] Speaker 2: I make take some notes and you know, so I
[38:28] Speaker 2: can refer back to point number three A and and
[38:31] Speaker 2: ask you know. But it's always so eloquent, as you know.
[38:35] Speaker 1: I don't mind.
[38:38] Speaker 2: Anyway. Anyway. She says something all the time to people
[38:44] Speaker 2: that I've never said to anyone. She'll say, somebody be
[38:49] Speaker 2: telling a story. This happened last week. True story. Okay,
[38:53] Speaker 2: because I said this last night, she knows what I'm
[38:55] Speaker 2: gonna saying. She said last week to somebody, they were
[38:57] Speaker 2: starting to tell a story. I'm yawning.
[39:00] Speaker 1: I look interested, but I gotta enter yon.
[39:06] Speaker 2: I'm huh.
[39:08] Speaker 1: I'm thinking the more I know, the faster they'll do this.
[39:12] Speaker 1: And she goes, she goes, oh, this.
[39:16] Speaker 2: Is a great story. Please tell me everything and don't
[39:21] Speaker 2: leave out any details. Shop And when it said Peter
[39:35] Speaker 2: told the whole story, I thought about Hollywood. I thought
[39:40] Speaker 2: about the whole story, all the details. And sometimes you
[39:48] Speaker 2: let doubt cut you off in the middle of a sentence.
[39:51] Speaker 2: That God is speaking in your life.
[39:54] Speaker 1: So be careful about the short story.
[39:57] Speaker 2: Be careful when people try to summarize your life into
[39:59] Speaker 2: it neat little category. Be careful when you tell yourself
[40:03] Speaker 2: a story like that's all there is. That's not all
[40:06] Speaker 2: there is. There's more to the story. There's a hole
[40:12] Speaker 2: in your story right now, and I wonder what you're
[40:14] Speaker 2: going to fill it with. When Peter went down to
[40:17] Speaker 2: preach to Cornelius, he went down to tell him the
[40:20] Speaker 2: good news about Jesus Christ. When he recounted it to
[40:24] Speaker 2: the circumcised believers in Jerusalem, he left one part out.
[40:28] Speaker 2: Let me show you what he left out of his story.
[40:31] Speaker 2: He left out the sermon that he preached while he
[40:34] Speaker 2: was there. I want to show you just one thing
[40:36] Speaker 2: before I sit down and put this mic up and
[40:39] Speaker 2: send you home happy. I want to show you why
[40:42] Speaker 2: some of you are stuck in a part of your
[40:44] Speaker 2: story that was never intended to be the end. Because
[40:47] Speaker 2: when Peter got up to preach to Cornelius in Acts,
[40:50] Speaker 2: chapter ten, verse thirty nine, he said something about Jesus
[40:54] Speaker 2: that we are all witnesses. I saw it. I know
[40:58] Speaker 2: what you heard. I saw it. I was there. I
[41:01] Speaker 2: saw him save me. I saw him pay the price
[41:04] Speaker 2: for my sins. I saw him shed his blood. I
[41:07] Speaker 2: saw him with the lashes on his black back. I
[41:10] Speaker 2: saw him as a sheep before the sheer, and he
[41:12] Speaker 2: didn't say a word. I saw it for myself, and
[41:15] Speaker 2: we are witnesses of everything that he did. In the
[41:18] Speaker 2: country of the Jews and in Jerusalem, they killed him.
[41:22] Speaker 2: They hung him on a cross.
[41:24] Speaker 1: Comma. They hung him on a cross. Comma.
[41:29] Speaker 2: They hung him on a cross Comma. The word of
[41:33] Speaker 2: the Lord for you today, my brother, my sister, don't
[41:37] Speaker 2: stop at the comma. Don't stop at the comma, because
[41:43] Speaker 2: the next verse says, but God, I love those two
[41:48] Speaker 2: words like I love the breath in my lungs. But God,
[41:53] Speaker 2: we were trespassers. We had broken his law. We did
[41:57] Speaker 2: not deserve mercy. Somebody shall but God. Seeing if you
[42:01] Speaker 2: stop at the comma, you never get to see the button.
[42:05] Speaker 2: God was raising him from the dead by the time
[42:07] Speaker 2: the story started to spread. Resurrection is possible when you
[42:12] Speaker 2: realize he didn't stay on the cross. When they nailed
[42:17] Speaker 2: him on the tree, they put a nail in his hands.
[42:20] Speaker 2: But early one Sunday he shaw Thomas something. Put your
[42:25] Speaker 2: finger where the nails were. There's a hole in your story.
[42:32] Speaker 2: This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's a hole
[42:36] Speaker 2: in your story. Follow me down to the garden tomb
[42:41] Speaker 2: where they laid his body in a cave. His body
[42:44] Speaker 2: is not there. He is risen.
[42:47] Speaker 5: There's a hole in your story, and the best is
[42:52] Speaker 5: yet to come. And he who began a good work
[42:55] Speaker 5: in you will be faithful to complete it.
[43:00] Speaker 4: You'll believe it.
[43:01] Speaker 2: Give the US South right now, Give the US South.
[43:07] Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of
[43:09] Speaker 2: you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of
[43:12] Speaker 2: you that this ministry is possible. You can click the
[43:15] Speaker 2: link in the description to give now, or visit Elevationchurch
[43:19] Speaker 2: dot org slash podcast for more information and if you
[43:22] Speaker 2: enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it
[43:26] Speaker 2: with your friends. You can click the share button, take
[43:28] Speaker 2: a screenshot and share it on your social stories and
[43:30] Speaker 2: tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God
[43:33] Speaker 2: bless you.

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